Moyo to step up privatisation drive

Moyo, who was Minister of State in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirais office prior to his latest assignment, said 11 parastatals had been identified by the government for commercialisation or sell-off, adding that private investors interested in taking up stake in the companies have been invited to submit bids.

“My Ministry would like to see the State Enterprises Restructuring Agency (SERA) playing a leading role in all commercialisation, privatisation and restructuring of state enterprises and parastatals in line with government policy,” Moyo told The Zimbabwean on Sunday last week. ?

Among targeted government-owned firms is Ziscosteel, once a major employer and key foreign currency earner before independence in 1980, which stopped operations in 2008 at the height of an economic crisis and has failed to fully recover owing to a lack of capital for re-tooling and raw materials.

The government holds about 70 percent in Ziscosteel once the largest integrated steelworks in the region. Several potential investors including the worlds biggest steel maker, the Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, are said to have expressed in acquiring stake in the ailing Zimbabwean firm.

Also identified for possible privatisation is the generation unit of state power utility Zest which has been struggling to produce enough electricity for the country.

Other firms that will be put on the market, according to Moyo, include the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, the Grain Marketing Board, fixed-telephone line operator TelOne and its sister cellular company NetOne, Cold Storage, Allied Timbers, Air Zimbabwe and Agribank.

Moyo said the government authority for the sell-off was granted way back in April, adding that any deal to offload government stake in the various companies would require Cabinet approval.

He said: Cabinet . underscored the need to proceed on a case by case basis with consideration for the state of affairs of each state enterprise and parastatal, the challenges faced, suggested turnaround strategies and the accompanying business plans before approval by Cabinet.”

Local economic experts and the International Monetary Fund say paratsatals have been a huge millstone on the fiscus, gobbling up billions of dollars in subsidies every year despite many of the firms being monopolies in their areas of trade.

Critics say most of Zimbabwes parastatals have been ruined by poorly qualified managers many aligned to President Robert Mugabes Zanu (PF) party who were put in charge of the government firms because of their political connections not technical know-how.

Moyo said: “My ministry shall be working towards banishing the unfortunate notion that public enterprises are associated with mismanagement and losses. Public companies must be competitive, efficient service providers and contribute significantly to wealth creation and poverty reduction.

In concrete terms that means minimising if not entirely eliminating underhand dealings and leakages that more often are responsible for bleeding the economy.”